1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting module and a vehicle lamp having the light emitting module.
2. Related Art
For safety reasons, vehicle lamps are required to produce prescribed light distribution patterns. For example, vehicle headlamps are required to produce an oblong light distribution pattern irradiating a region extending in a vehicle width direction such that the center part of the region is irradiated brighter than a peripheral part of the region.
In related art vehicle lamps, semiconductor light emitting devices such as light emitting diodes (LED) are used as a light source. When using an LED as a light source of a vehicle headlamp, it is difficult to produce a light distribution pattern having a required light quantity and shape with a single LED. In view of this, a related art light source module has a plurality of series-connected LEDs arranged in a row (see, e.g., JP 2008-524045 A).
To produce various light distribution patterns using a single unit, a light emitting module may be configured to have an array of LED chips arranged in a matrix manner.
However, as the number of LED chips arranged in an array form increases, the number of interconnections, the board size, and the number of connectors are likely to increase accordingly.